Jon Folkman
Jon Hal Folkman (born December 8, 1938 in Ogden (Utah) , † January 23, 1969 ) was an American mathematician.
Folkman was a Putnam Fellow in 1960 and studied mathematics at Princeton University , where he received his doctorate in 1964 with John Milnor with a dissertation in topology ( Equivariant maps of spheres into the classical groups ). He then worked as a mathematician at Rand Corporation . He fell ill with a brain tumor in the late 1960s and, despite the advanced stage of the tumor, initially had a successful operation ( Paul Erdős and Ronald Graham visited him immediately after the operation and tested him with mathematical problems, which he solved well), but then got depression and committed suicide .
He is known for making significant contributions to combinatorics , using topological methods. The Shapley-Folkman lemma in convex geometry is named after him (and Lloyd Shapley ) and is used, among other things, in economics. In 1967 he constructed the smallest semi-symmetric graph that was later named after him ( Folkman Graph ). He is one of the founders of the theory of oriented matroids , published posthumously in 1978 with James (Jim) Lawrence.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jon Folkman in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)
- ^ Paul Hoffman: The man who only loved numbers , London 1998, p. 110 f.
- ^ Folkman: Regular line-symmetric graph , Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Volume 3, 1967, pp. 215-232
- ↑ Folkman, Lawrence: Oriented Matroids , J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 25 (1978), pp. 199-236
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Folkman, Jon |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Folkman, Jon Hal (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American mathematician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 8, 1938 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ogden, Utah |
| DATE OF DEATH | 23rd January 1969 |